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Article

14 Nov 2016

Author:
Alex Heath, Business Insider (UK)

USA: Facebook to face lawsuit alleging discrimination over its advertising option to exclude ethnic, gender & religious groups

"Facebook will fight the lawsuit that claims its 'ethnic affinities' ad targeting tool is illegal", 7 Nov 2016

Facebook is being sued for letting marketers exclude ads from being shown to specific "ethnic affinities," genders, and religions.  A lawsuit seeking class action status filed in California federal court on November 3 alleges that Facebook's ad targeting options violate federal fair housing and civil rights laws...Facebook said the "lawsuit is utterly without merit"...According to the lawsuit, Facebook has enabled ads "with respect to the sale or rental of dwellings" as well as to employment "that indicate preference and discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, and national origin."  The suit says such classes of people are protected by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as well as the Fair Housing Act.  The lawsuit says it is not seeking to completely get rid of the "exclude people" function in Facebook's ad platform, which it says has some legal and desirable uses.